Scrap Happy Day March 2025 - better late than never!

Each month, on the 15th, a group of people post on their blogs about their use of scraps over the previous four weeks.  Generally it is fabric but not always, and there are some innovative uses of scraps displayed.  Kate sends a reminder email so we don't forget to post on the 15th of the month.  See below for details of how you can join in.  It is a great incentive to get things done.

I wasn't at home on the 15th so am hoping that posting this on the 17th will be okay.  

In the last month, I've worked on a few scrap quilts.

Two baby quilt tops from scraps of fabrics used for Days for Girls menstrual health kits.  I had to work with the strip widths I had and the colours.  Bright and cheerful.  I will wait until I have a few quilt tops for DfG before the next steps in turning them into quilts.  

A couple of months ago, I grabbed all the blue-ish 2.5" strips from the strip box and sewed them into dark/light pairs and then into strips of four.  I then cross cut the strips into 8.5" blocks.

The blocks are then cut on the diagonal and sewn together with different pairs of triangles, so the darks and lights alternate.  Trim the blocks to 8" square and lay them out.  

Sew the blocks together and voila!  A quilt top with movement and a secondary pattern in it, and I've used up a bunch of 2.5" strips.  Because I wasn't planning very well, some of the fabrics are lights in some pairs, and darks in others.  However, it still works.  The pattern is one of Bonnie Hunter's scrap patterns, the strip twist   I plan to add a border to this quilt which should make it around 55" x 75", a nice lap quilt size.  When that will happen though, who knows!

Do check out Bonnie's website.  There are heaps of free patterns, perfect for using up all those fabric scraps we can't bear to throw out.  

The bloggers below are all ScrapHappy Day participants, maybe not every month, but their blogs are worth looking at.  If you want to join in too, contact Kate below and have some fun with scraps.  Kate sends a reminder email each month, a few days before the 15th, so you can post about your work with scraps.      

Kate, Eva, Sue, Lynda,

Birthe, Turid, Tracy, Jan, 

Moira, Sandra, Chris, Alys,

Claire, Jean, Dawn, Gwen,

Sunny, Kjerstin, Sue L, Vera, 

 Ann, Dawn 2, Carol, Preeti,

Nóilin, Viv, Karrin,  Alissa,

 Tierney, Hannah and Maggie

February 2025 Chookshed Challenge report

February's number was 10 and I've completed Mason's quilt!  Happy that I've done that.  

My challenge number 6 from January is still continuing, with February spent planning the flowers in the next round and then joining them (with their cross) into pairs and then the pairs into fours, then the fours into eights. I'm hoping that my evenings in front of the TV in March will be spent adding the four sections onto the rest of the quilt.  Fingers crossed.  

Deana from Dreamworthy Quilts has chosen the new number for the March challenge.  It is #2 so, as I know I've actually finished that one (in January), I will work on another number.  I will be away from home for about four months this year so will keep the embroidery kit numbers for those months and the quilts I've completed.  (Not sure that I should have started this challenge this year, however it is done now.  We will see how we go.)

My list is as follows:

1. complete strip sets for blue strip twist quilt
2. quilt and bind A's quilt
3. second backstitch embroidery kit (for while I'm travelling)
4. quilt and bind S's quilt
5. quilt and bind R's quilt
6. continue flower blocks for J's quatro quilt
7. complete bunny Fat Quarter Mixer quilt top
8. start on Amelie's quilt
9. backstitch embroidery kit (for while I'm travelling)
10. quilt and bind Mason's quilt

Chookshed Challege 2025 - Deana from Dreamworthy Quilts is one member of the Chookshed Quilters.  Each month in 2025, Deana will select a number from one to ten and quilters work on the project with the corresponding number from their own list.  The main rule for this challenge is that there are no rules, which should work for me as I am away for large chunks of 2025.  For example, if the number six is chosen, and that particular month is a bit tricky to work on that numbered project from my list, I can change the project!  And a goal could be just masking minimal progress on a particular quilt.  I like those sorts of rules.  

February finishes

Finally, I'm quilting the children's quilts I'd finished piecing in November.  My sewing machine's free-motion quilting was enabled by the repair guy fixing the bobbin tension in January. Hooray!  August's quilt was finished in January and the following ones were finished in February.  One more next month and they will be done, and I can get started on the next quilts I have planned.  

Samaira's quilt:  finished size = 52.5" x 78" (133 x 198cm.) Pattern is the Plus Sign quilt (or the Modern Plus, or just plain Plus).  All fabrics from my stash, including part of a fat quarter bundle I picked up years ago, intending it to be for a young girl's quilt.  I have cut enough block pieces for a second quilt of a similar size.  Quilted in the ditch on the the pluses, and a vague squiggle in the name blocks. 

 

Mason's quilt:  finished size = 51.25" x 71.5" (130 x 181 cm.)  Pattern is the Confetti Quilt from the "Super Simple Fat Quarter Quilts" book by Lynda Milligan and Nancy Smith.  Fabric is a layer cake of brights, plus a bit of extra fabric from my stash.  The layer cake was purchased in the USA last year, from Missouri Star Quilt Company in Hamilton, Missouri.  Quilted with the walking foot in the main blocks, with a stipple with the free motion foot in the name block, and free motion in the two borders.  I'm not sure about having the borders only on top and bottom.  I just wanted to make the quilt a touch longer, but not any wider.  

        

All the quilts this month have labels printed on fabric.  It is getting harder to get the labels printed, as fewer people have inkjet printers these days.  We've stopped using ours as the ink cartridges cost too much.  I just use the public library printer these days for the small amount of printing I do but can't use the special fabric there.  What do other quilters do?  I can hand write the labels, and often do, but it is nice to have a colour label with maybe a picture on it.

I had a bit of a win this week, when binding Mason's quilt.  I ended up with only 4" of binding left when I attached it.  Often I have a lot more than that left over and need to incorporate it into a scrappy binding.  

February 2025 fabric tally

Finishes in the month:   Samaira's quilt = 5.75 m; Mason's quilt = 5.25 m ; Maree's dachshund quilt = 5 m.

Purchases in the month:    none (I'm feeling very virtuous, no fabric bought in two months!)

Fabric used:  - 16 m         Fabric acquired:  + 0 m

Running tally for 2025:  - 22.25 m

A squirrel appeared!

A squirrel!:  I made a quilt for a good friend who loves dachshunds.  I decided around Christmas to make this quilt and ordered the pattern online.  Once it arrived, I started working on the quilt, rather than leave it until "later".  I had the deadline of Maree's birthday on 16th February to finish it.  

This was the first time I'd used an Elizabeth Hartman pattern, and won't be the last.  It was easy to follow and well-written.  The four dog blocks came together over two days in January, and adding the other parts of the quilt top was relatively quick and easy.  I thought this quilt really deserved a special quilting pattern so I outsourced the quilting to Sharron at Shadow's Quilting.  She did a great job using an edge to edge pattern of dogs and paw prints.  I hope Maree likes this quilt. 

After quilting and washing, the quilt shrank 1.25" across and 1.75" down - to be expected.  Although I used colour catchers in the wash, there was some slight bleeding of the bright pink trims on the pink sweatered dog, through to the backing fabric.  I noticed it but hope that not many others would see it.  

Maree's quilt:  finished size = 54.25" x 68.75" (138 x 175 cm.)  All fabric from stash.  I made a backing for the longarm quilter so I could use up more stash fabric rather than buy the backing from her.   

The first block, went together much easier than I expected.  

A litter is born!

I decided one dog needed trendy glasses

The finished quilt.

The quilting pattern

First challenge month finished and new one started

January was my first month of participation in the Chookshed Challenge, where we work on a particular project each month, using an individual numbered list and having Deana draw that month’s number to decide what we work on. 

6 was January’s number so I certainly did progress the Quatro quilt, hand piecing at least thirty flowers in the month and I’ve started joining them to the medium grey crosses for the next round of the quilt.  Since this is what I work on in the evenings while watching TV, it wasn’t hard to progress it and I’m keeping my fingers crossed that the next round of the quilt will all be attached by the end of March.

This is the quilt top so far.  There will be three more rounds of blocks.

February’s number is 10. On my list this is work on stitcheries while travelling. Since I’m not away much this month, I’m swapping numbers so will work on quilting and binding Mason’s quilt. I should make the most of the free motion quilting now working on my machine. 

My rearranged list is as follows:

1. complete strip sets for blue strip twist quilt
2. quilt and bind A's quilt
3. second backstitch embroidery kit (for while I'm travelling)
4. quilt and bind S's quilt
5. quilt and bind R's quilt
6. continue flower blocks for J's quatro quilt
7. complete bunny Fat Quarter Mixer quilt top
8. start on Amelie's quilt
9. backstitch embroidery kit (for while I'm travelling)
10. quilt and bind Mason's quilt

Sewing machine repaired and I'm off and running!

Finally made it to the larger town near us, where there is a sewing machine mechanic who could fit my machine in for a service and repair.  Since late November, the tension had been playing up.  I could piece without any problems but the free motion quilting was dire.  I had tested needles, thread, settings, and nothing made much difference to the free motion quilting.  Funnily, quilting using the walking foot didn't seem to be a problem.  Apparently it was the bobbin tension that was the issue and of course, with a computerised machine, I couldn't change that myself.  It needed a service anyway, since I can't get into the innards myself to clean out all the fluff.  

So finally, I've finished the free motion quilting on August's quilt.  It will be handed over in the next couple of weeks.  Now to finish the three other baby quilts that have been waiting since November.  The babies will be at school before they get the quilts at this rate!  😄

    
These photos are a bit dark, sorry.  Too breezy out in the open today.  

August's quilt:  finished size:  56.5" x 74.5" (143 x 190cm).    Pieced back, odds from other quilt backs and a big piece of space fabric that I hadn't found a use for.  Quilted with Signature threads Rainbows on top and Bottom Line in bobbin.  

January 2025 fabric tally

Finishes in the month:   bike basket cover = 0.75 m; August's quilt = 5.5 m

Purchases in the month:    none

Fabric used:  - 6.25 m         Fabric acquired:  + 0 m

Running tally for 2025:  - 6.25 m

Each year, my fabric clock goes back to zero.  Otherwise I don't think I'd ever catch up.

ScrapHappy Day January 2025

Recording my scrappy sewing.  That's scrappy, not crappy!

A little scrappy sewing has been done in the last few weeks.

My SIL asked if I could make a cover for her bike basket as, apparently, items kept in it have a habit of bouncing out when she rides over speed humps and the like.  So I found a scrap of red gingham in the stash (not sure where it came from) and made a quick and easy cover, with elastic to keep it tight.  I haven't yet heard if it has stopped her water bottle from bouncing out of the basket but at least it looks cute!  

And I've completed a couple of scrappy blocks - just to keep my sewing hand in.  These blocks are what I do when I need to sew but my mind is on other things.  I just about have enough to make a quilt this year.  I enjoy making these scrappy trip around the world blocks.  

Each month, we are reminded by Kate or Gun to post about our use of scraps in the last few weeks.  There's no obligation to post but it is a great way of reminding ourselves of what we've achieved, and of showcasing the various uses our scraps can be put to.  

The bloggers below are all ScrapHappy Day participants, maybe not every month, but their blogs are worth looking at.  If you want to join in too, contact Kate below and have some fun with scraps.  Kate sends a reminder email each month, a few days before the 15th, so you can post about your work with scraps.      

Kate, Eva, Sue, Lynda,

Birthe, Turid, Tracy, Jan, 

Moira, Sandra, Chris, Alys,

Claire, Jean, Dawn, Gwen,

Sunny, Kjerstin, Sue L, Vera, 

 Ann, Dawn 2, Carol, Preeti,

Nóilin, Viv, Karrin,  Alissa,

 Tierney, Hannah and Maggie